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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BY 



GEN. L. P. Di CESNOLA, 

Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 



UNVEILING 

OF THE 

COLUMBUS MONUMENT, 

IN THE 

CITY OF NEW YORK, 

OCTOBER 12th, 1893. 






NE>?V YORK, 
1893. 



^»<.- 
^J^' 



ADDRESS 



DELIVEkED BV 

GEN. L:"p."di CESNOLA. 

Director of the Metropolitan Mitsemii of Art, 



UNVEILING 

OF THE 

COLUMBUS MONUMENT 

IN THE 

CITY OF NEW YORK, 

OCTOBER l^TH, 18. ^>. 






NEW YOKK, 
1893. 



.C45 



ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

We meet to-day, under auspices most digni- 
fied and favorable, to render our tribute of 
commemoration to the enterprise and the man, 
with whose ever crfowinQf fame the world has 
rung for four now completed centuries; to 
whom, from us Italian born among all others, 
grateful and exalted commemoration is pecu- 
liarly due. 

We present this monument to the City of 
New York, and we thank the City, and her 
Department of Public Parks, for the fitting 
and distinguished site by them selected for the 
erection of our accepted memorial. 

The countrymen of Columbus, the Italians 
resident and citizens in the United States, 
conscious indeed that his true monument is 
this great land, its institutions, its prosperity, 
its blessings, its lessons of advance for all 



4 
humanity, have yet desired to testify, to at 
least the present generation, their full and un- 
failing sense of their great and peculiar debt. 

They have procured, in contributions great 
and small, but uniformly large in spirit, the 
execution of this monument; and they have 
erected and presented it in token of their 
affection and gratitude to this great and be- 
loved country; the country in which they have 
found a permanent home, a more congenial 
form of government, and better and freer 
facilities honorably to earn their livelihood. 

To this endeavor, furthermore, has been 
given the sincerest approval and sympathy of 
both the people and the government of our 
native land. In glad acquiescence with our 
request, the Italian Government appointed a 
royal commission, comprising men of Italy of 
highest authority in the requisite arts, who 
carefully selected the plans for this monument 
in all its details, entrusted its execution to 
Gaetano Russo, who is present at this celebra- 
tion, and who is second to none of living 
Italian sculptors, and gave the work their 



5 
active superintendence till its completion. 

Still further to testify their sympathy, and as 
a special evidence of good will towards this 
country, the Italian Government was pleased 
to order a vessel of its navy to convey and 
deliver our offering at this port. It was 
further pleased expressly to detail and send 
the ship of war " Bausan " to participate in the 
City's celebration; and to instruct its diplomatic 
representatives at Washington, with its con- 
sular officers at New York, to be present in 
their official capacity at these ceremonies and 
celebration. 

We, indeed, can add no lustre to the name 
of our immortal countryman. His monument is 
the new world, and its reflex renewal of the 
old. 

Yet is it fitting that we, Italian Americans, 
in justice to our own sense and to our own 
hearts, should erect and inaugurate this monu- 
ment to-day. There are, too, ever those who 
will forget and grovel, if no care is given, by 
precept and by visible memorial, to tell to 
coming generations the deeds and achieve- 



6 

ments of heroes of the past, and hand down 
to posterity our better inheritance. 

Long before Columbus' day, it had been 
famiHar to science that the world was round; 
in Ptolemy and Strabo were to be read the 
identical lessons and illustrations of our ele- 
mentary geographies of to-day; as early as the 
eighth century a Syrian ecclesiastic had dis- 
covered means of measuring the length of a 
degree on the earth, and knew of the earth's 
compression at the poles; and the isle "Atlantis" 
itself was dimly to be discerned in hazy tradition. 
But all had been forgotten, and the science of 
science of the earth and sky had become heresy. 

The monuments of it all lay buried in the 
dust of libraries, and the whole inheritance 
therein had been despised for a mess of the 
pottage of ignorance and indolence. 

The son of the wool-comber of Genoa came 
(in 1 436-1 446) into an old world to be re-dis- 
covered, before he could discover, if not re-dis- 
cover, a new. At the University of Pavia he 
doubtless laid the foundation of his mathema- 
tical and nautical attainments; but not till after 



7 
his choice of the life of a sailor, at the age of 
fifteen, and subsequently sailing, as he says, 
"wherever ship has sailed" — to England 
ultima Thule or Iceland, the Greek isles, the 
Guinea coast, did he learn from Ptolemy and 
the other ancients the old fact that the earth 
was round, learn to draw charts and to con- 
struct spheres, and become the most learned, 
as well as the most consummate, practical 
navigator of his times. Naval battle and ship- 
wreck, followed by chart-drawing for a liveli- 
hood, poring over the old log-books of his 
naval father-in-law, and talking with old sea- 
men, opened to his views the probability of a 
short western route to the East Indies; and 
thenceforward his life was one of struggle and 
toil, in which more the man of affairs and the 
man of science, more the man of letters and 
the oral advocate, were truly the character of 
Columbus, than the mere educated navio-ator 
But tremendous conflict is the price of every 
advance for good in this world; nor in that ao-e 
could private enterprise accomplish any great 
work, nor surmount any very great obstacle. 



Nothing could be done without govermental 
aid, and the further aid of the clerical keeper 
of the governmental conscience. 

Rejected by the Senate of his native Genoa, 
Columbus met only treachery at the court of 
the more enlightened John II. of Portugal, 
who, through bad advisers, was about to steal 
the plan of Columbus, and send an expedition 
without the latter's knowledgfe. 

Spain was tried again and again, only to 
meet overwhelming and humiliating opposition 
from a legion of misquoted biblical texts; al- 
though Columbus' aims were missionary, and 
nothing less than the discovery of the marvel- 
ous province of Cipango and the conversion to 
Christianity of the Grand Khan. Spain, how- 
ever, in 1490, rejected his project as vain and 
impracticable, and unbecoming the notice of 
royalty. 

Setting out for France, in despair, Colum- 
bus was reduced to beg bread and water for 
himself and his son Diego, at the monastery of 
La Rabida at Palos; and in this extremity the 
tide at last begins to turn. The convent 



9 
guardian is Juan Perez de Marchena, an ardent 
student of geography, and former confessor to 
Queen Isabella. All honor to him! He wrote 
to the Queen, who sent money to bring Colum- 
bus back to Granada; where, though not till 
after long, wearisome, and repeatedly broken- 
off negotiations, and on the entreaty of Luis 
de Santangel, Queen Isabella was induced to 
determine on the expedition; offering to pledge, 
we are told, her jewels, since the kingdom's 
revenues were all but exhausted by the struggle 
that had just ended in expelling the Moors. 

All the world knows how, on Friday, the 3rd 
of August, 1492, his decked-ship, the Santa 
Maria, with a crew of fifty men, and his two 
caravels, the Pinta with thirty men and the 
Nina with twenty-four men, weighed anchor 
and stood out for the Canary Islands; and 
how, after discouragements amounting almost 
to mutiny, at two in the morning of Friday, 
the I 2th of October, 1492, the land of "Guana- 
hani," which he named San Salvador, was 
sighted by Roderigo de Triana, a sailor on the 
Nina; and how, after accidents, adventures, 



lO 

and discoveries, the Nina alone of the fleet 
returned and arrived at Spain (having barel)' 
escaped capture at the Azores) in March, finally 
dropping anchor at Palos on Friday the 15th. 

All the world knows, too, the honors show- 
ered upon Columbus, and the triumphant 
exultation of their Majesties of Spain; the 
sending of a second expedition in 1493; with 
colonists, adventurers, and missionaries; the 
discoveries, the settlements, the troubles, the 
mutinies; the sickness of the hero; the con- 
spiracies against him; and how finally the tide 
turned in his favor on his return — clad in the 
humble dress of a Franciscan friar. 

All the world knows, too, of his third 
voyage, where detraction was still more power- 
ful, and finally sent him back to Spain in 
chains; although on this voyage he discovered 
the continent of South America. 

All the world, too, knows how detractions, 
persecution, perils at the hands both of enemies 
and false friends, continued to pursue him on 
his fourth voyage, till at last, wearied out by 



II 
perpetual struggles, slander and illness, at 
Valladolid, on the 20th of May, 1506, he ended 
a life that was troubled to the last; though in 
honor, and leaving an imperishable name to 
his inheritors. Whether his remains still rest 
in San Domingo, as claimed by the archbishop 
of that island, or whether they (and not those 
of his son) were actually transferred thence to 
the cathedral of Havana, as supposed and in- 
tended about a century ago, his obsequies have 
thrice been celebrated with all state and 
solemnity, and his memory has ever been 
cherished by his detractors and their descend- 
ants, with all the zeal that belongs to the 
generation that builds the tombs of the pro- 
phets whom its fathers have killed. 

Detraction and injury were in exceeding 
large measure the life reward of Columbus, as 
they are to-day of most of the great and good, 
and of all the world's most distinguished bene- 
factors. But in that respect this generation of 
his countrymen does lay claim to purity of 
heart, with a most loyal reverence and grati- 



12 

tude toward Columbus; and toward the Amer- 
ican republic, for the inestimable inheritance 
which he has left us. 

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a 
great and noble painting by Brozik, setting 
forth the moment when the agreement be- 
tween Columbus and Isabella was signed and 
sealed, the 17th of April, 1492. No painting 
in the Museum is more popular, or more 
deservedly so; for it tells its own vivid story, 
and portrays this crisis in the world's history 
in a manner that is grasped on the instant 
by every one. The life-like presentation of 
the Queen's understanding sympathy, quite 
withdrawn from the jewel caskets, and wholly 
absorbed in the exposition of Columbus — who 
again is fired with the lofty certainty of his 
demonstrated purpose, and glowing with the 
assurance of finally attained appreciation; 
while the satisfied and confident, but cautious, 
Ferdinand still holds the pen, giving most 
earnest heed to Columbus' words; the courtiers, 
the Queen's father confessor (Ximenes, here 



13 

pardonably presented as a cardinal, a little in 
advance of the dignity itself), the chief com- 
manders of the army and navy, and dignitaries 
of various kind and degrees, sit in audience, 
manifesting various thoughts or beliefs, in- 
credulity or amazement, upon their counten- 
ances — vivid and powerful is the scene; but 
the popular heart leaps beyond the mere 
estimate of art, and loves — and continually 
testifies before that canvas its love for Colum- 
bus and the exalted, self-sacrificing Isabella 
who befriended him, 

Isabella! But when, in time of need, or 
effort, or sacrifice, have women been found 
wanting? To them appeals, upon them rests, 
the laborious, the patient, the quiet, the long 
suffering, and the efficacious part in all the 
world's orreat struQf2.1es; no less than in the 
minor private ones, which bring little out-door 
renown, but which guide and control the world 
as surely and efficiently as the wise matron 
rears her cradle charge to strength and virtue. 
Scarcely ever, since the crying of the infant 



14 

Moses touched the heart of Pharaoh's dauo-h- 
ter, and led her to adopt and rear the infant 
to become the saviour of the Jewish people, the 
law-giver of the ages, and the great transmitter 
in high antiquity of truth and religion, has a 
woman held a place or wielded an opportunity 
comparable with that of Isabella. We know 
no other mother of a new world. 

Yet, thank heaven, she is not alone in the 
roll of women conspicuous for great and excel- 
lent services to the race. Women like Zeno- 
bia, Elisabeth of England, Victoria, and our 
own dear beloved Margherita of Italy, have 
exalted royalty; women like Joan of Arc and 
Florence Nightingale have glorified, dignified 
or mitigated one or the other aspect of war; 
bringing victory on the one hand, or succor 
and healing on the other; but our joy and 
boast to-day is the host of women of our own 
land, who, in walks of life both humble and 
conspicuous, have ever lent, and who still do 
ever lend. Inestimable aid to every good work, 
religious, secular and domestic, in every grade 



15 
of life, for well-being, excellence, happiness 
and relief. 

It is the woman in Isabella, not her 
throne, nor her opportunity, that we most 
cherish and exalt. All honor to the maids and 
matrons of the new world, who have never 
failed to emulate her example, or to mani- 
fest their native queenliness. They shall pre- 
serve, as Isabella disclosed, this our great 
country. 

Could we suppose the ages to retrocede, or 
rather, that the deeds and the legacy of Colum- 
bus should be blotted from the history of the 
last four centuries, we might then obtain some 
just idea of the event we celebrate to-day. 
What would the old world be, with its ever-, 
teeminor millions, swarming- in their circum- 
scribed limits as in an over-crowded hive? 
Where would be the world's navigation or 
commerce, or the higher sciences upon which 
both depend? What would be the night of 
superstition over the crowded, struggling, per- 
haps despairing, multitudes of the old world? 



i6 

Where would the Ho-ht have broken forth? 
Or rather, how would not the light that almost 
contemporaneously broke forth in the inven- 
tion of printing and other valuable arts, have 
not been overborne and extinguished? What 
would have been the fate of the reforms and 
revolutions in the old world, in the subsequent 
centuries? Where would freedom have found 
a cradle, or the better germs of life and gov- 
ernment, that budded in the old world, have 
found a soil in which to crrow and thrive un- 
choked by the prescriptive thorns of tyranny, 
superstition, and want? Where would be the 
millions who now form the vast common peo- 
ple living in more freedom, comfort, health, 
convenience, happiness and respectability, than 
the world has hitherto known in any clime or 
age? 

Would not our multitudes be old-world 
grovelers, ill-clad, uninstructed? Would not 
some among our' millionaires be butcher's boys 
in Germany, weary silk-weavers in France, 
canal drivers in Holland, miners in Wales, 



17 
shepherd-lads in Scotland, or peat-diggers in 
Ireland? 

Where would be our art? Where would be 
the noble names that have adorned the bar, 
the legislative hall, the rostra, the council or 
the pulpit; that have illumined the bench; or 
expounded or enforced the laws of nations to 
a wider world? 

And what would be the old world without 
the reflex from the new, in all that develops 
and ennobles the man or the nation; that has 
helped it to learn that "stranger" is not a 
synonym for "enemy," and even taught it that 
in almost every ancient casus belli there is a 
better resort than war? 

A new world opened in freshness and 
beauty; an old world regenerated and re- 
juvenated; the rise of millions from bodily and 
spiritual groveling to erect manhood; the birth 
of newer and better nations of regenerated 
and better men; — -these, and these, in all sober 
prospect, to grow and spread beyond the com- 
putation if not the imagination of man, are 



i8 
what we owe to the unique genius and enter- 
prise of Columbus; and this it is, which, in 
words inadequate, we commemorate to-day. 

God said "Let there be hght," and there 
was light. 

Long may we, and our children, and our 
children's children, joy and prosper and live 
gratefully in its beams! 











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